Just saw this with my daughter on cable. I'd never heard of it until now, but it is an interesting parable.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it.
It's about as subtle sometimes as an anvil on the head sometimes (Paradise Valley, the train from a Harper's Weekly nightmare), but it is an interesting take on the co-opting of traditions and symbols, the taming of the American West and the loss of the traditional, independent, potentially dangerous but exciting traditional American lifestyle in order to provide a predictable, comfortable, boring existence serving the greed of a rising industrial system.
It is pretty ironic that it comes from Disney.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned it.
It's about as subtle sometimes as an anvil on the head sometimes (Paradise Valley, the train from a Harper's Weekly nightmare), but it is an interesting take on the co-opting of traditions and symbols, the taming of the American West and the loss of the traditional, independent, potentially dangerous but exciting traditional American lifestyle in order to provide a predictable, comfortable, boring existence serving the greed of a rising industrial system.
It is pretty ironic that it comes from Disney.